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Novel Tale, a changeling living in Canterlot as a writer, has his peaceful life shattered when changelings from another hive attack, revealing the existence of changelings to all of ponykind. And his last book had a changeling character in it... ·Blissey1

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Changelings in love, existential crises, and shapeshifting pranks abound in this secret document that was totally not found under the bed of Celestia's number one student. Nope. It was, uh, Trixie's bed. In her wagon. Yeah that's the t ·Masterweaver

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A changeling and a young filly are tricked into venturing into an alternate world, one locked in a permanent cycle of war between monsters, and strange creatures called 'hyu-mans'... ·Bucking Nonsense

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After the royal wedding, a new changeling hive makes its presence known and wishs to open diplomatic relations. Twilight decides to use this opprotunity to learn more about them, but ends up getting far more than she bargined for. ·Law Abiding Pony

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An earth pony and his griffin best friend set out to study other cultures, what sets them apart, and how to forge bonds of friendship. Things rarely go to plan though, and sometimes comically wrong. ·Goldfur

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Nightmare Moon is defeated. A new dawn has finally come. One stallion looks at the setting moon at the horizon, wondering whether he did the right thing by helping Celestia imprison the mare he loves. ·Nyerguds

A changeling who has lived at the side of an Equestrian mare for most of his life finds himself in the middle of the changeling invasion of Canterlot. He has no idea who the invading queen or hive are, and just wants to stay where he is, and more importantly, who he is.

The spell that ends the invasion doesn't discriminate, though. With his old pony form irreversibly stripped away, and the whole kingdom out to hunt his kind, he tries to keep his family together, and struggles to find his place in the world.

Please comment! Even now, I'd love to hear what people think as they read through

Yes, you did a good job fleshing out things. I did notice one error you might want to correct.

Swift Star sighed. "Come on!" he said. "The buck projecting that thing is one of the Twilight family.

I'm pretty sure that you meant that to be "stallion", unless that was Flitter making a slip and using a Changeling term for a male.

Of course, now that you've got an even stronger beginning, you realize that we want to see more. Morning Rain and Flitter have found their own personal balance again, but now they have to face the rest of Equestria. We'll need more backstory on the two, like what their professions are. Living in Canterlot, I can imagine that Morning Rain's likely not an active member of one of the weather teams, so the family must do something to bring in the bits. The first hurdle they are going to have to deal with is how to convince other ponies that Flitter doesn't have any association with Queen Chrysalis and her Swarm beyond race. That ought to be good for several chapters in and of itself, and then you have the whole race fear that Flitter is going to face if the couple want to get back anything resembling their prior life. Honestly, I can see where this will be a point where an unexpected patronage from one of the Royal Sisters might come into play. After all, a certain Princess of the Night knows exactly what Flitter is giong to be facing, and if he and Morning Rain can convince her of his sincerity, I can see her as his champion in the Court.

No way. That'd be a horrible cop-out, invalidating some of the major psychological points of this story.

The main issues they are facing are 1. the fact Flitter lost a shape he had really started to identify as 'himself', and 2. changelings are clearly seen as enemies and monsters by ponykind after the Canterlot invasion incident.

Magically removing those issues would destroy any reason to even write more of this. These issues are what make it interesting to write more about it.

The additions really tie this story together. The new opening especially, as it helps set the tone of their relationship prior to the revelation. I can certainly see many problems ahead for these two, only the first of witch is trying to convince their son that Flitter really is the father he's always known. That shield kicked Chrysalis out of Canterlot, maby even Equestria proper, but Shining Armor can't be everywhere at once. I foresee the government issuing changeling awareness warnings. The queen and her swarm are likely to stir up trouble again, souring the public's view even further. Yes, there will be a long hard road ahead for them.

"2. changelings are clearly seen as enemies and monsters by ponykind after the Canterlot invasion incident."

A big problem for you continuing with this is that it would be so easy for him to go somewhere else, copy somebody else's form, and come back. I can't think of many plausible reasons not to do this. Celestia could make an edict forbidding this 'cloning' - that's a little implausible, since the only people who could break it wouldn't respect it - but it's all I can think of in the moment. He can't just break like the Tardis.

Taking a form that deceives someone else, because they think they know the person with that form, is a lie.

Taking a random faraway pony's form isn't a deception. I don't see it as any more of a lie than taking the form you were born with.

Anyway, shouldn't Morning Rain get to choose? :) Hey, if I had a partner who could choose any form... I think I'd have a lot of fun with that. Probably a lot more fun than my partner would. "Oh, Flitter! That old body again? You had it all last week! Let's go down to the market and look for somepony different." "MR, sometimes I think you only love me for other peoples' bodies."

Yeah, the original opening was one of the parts that really bothered me. The characters were just completely unknown to the reader, and that needed to be rectified. It also allowed me to put the Chekhov's gun in the story of what the shield would do to him. With that little hint, and knowing the episode, people would realize that the shield at the end would do more than kick him out, and it also allowed me to let Flitter really panic when it happened.

The main reason is the #1 I summed up there... he really identified with the form he had, and doesn't really feel comfortable in anything now. And Morning Rain already felt uncomfortable calling him anything but his 'true' name. Rest assured she feels the same about his shape. If I'm writing more adventures of these two, he'll probably use the ability to get out of trouble at some points, sure, but I don't think either will feel comfortable with him permanently taking another pony form.

I've just gotten a really interesting comment on Pony fiction Archive... someone saying they liked the idea of "good changelings".

So, for all the people here, let me just clear that up right away. They're not really 'good', in my opinion... my 'Old Ways' changelings are based on the folklore ideas of malevolent fae that pretend to be human. The changelings do this to survive, and have devised ways to cause as little uproar as possible with the way they do this, but in the end, they're still deceiving tricksters. They manipulate dying people into giving them information on their lives so they can take their place, while the only thing they give in return is the vague promise that their loved one will not suffer the tragic news of their death. In this case, Flitter built up a life he's come to identify with more than his old changeling life, and the dying pony actually forced him into promising more than he normally would've, but you can imagine that in many cases, the partner will notice their loved one has changed, love will inevitable fade away, and the changeling will quietly slip away, looking for new chances.

So, yeah... there's no real Good and Evil... only the grey reality

I also imagine that changelings, being emotional vampires, have a hard time developing emotions of their own. Most of them would be a lot more like the mindless drone Flitter conversed with. But he's been a pony for twenty years, and in that time he has developed a lot more than most changelings would. Flitter isn't any different from other changelings; the circumstances just made him different. As far as changelings go, he's probably been living the American Dream

In that case, you can also imagine Queen Chrysalis would simply not allow her drones to develop. There's nothing harder to control than individuality

As for why and how Morning Rain reacted different than most to the replacement of Swift Star, well, I already got some fairly good ideas about that.

all this talk of changelings and their children makes me wonder if perhaps they pass on some of their magical abilities, even should their mate be an earth pony.

Hmmmmmm, do you think there's a little bit of 'ling in a certain element's background?

Yes, that's right, I'm talking to you miss spawns-extra-hooves-at-random! Pinkie has changeling magic but doesn't know or understand how they work, it just DOES because she thinks about stuff happening. And that is how Pinkie Pie is simply Pinkie.

(It would also make her family's ridiculously structured and reclusive nature make sense, as by living such a routine life there's no reason to bother with magic, therefore no way for the children to accidentally find out they DO have powers, and it also keeps them isolated and away from anyone finding out by accident.)

I'd wager Pinkieling would actually be hurt by finding out her lineage though, since now she would actually have to plot out stuff to work her magic, while at the moment she has no barriers because she doesn't REALISE there are barriers!

I've written a few first drafts for possible sequel chapters, but first I'm going to thoroughly clean up and rewrite this. An editor from ponychan was kind enough to offer his help, but due to me being me being a bit ill, and some other RL mess, I haven't been able to actually use the tons of suggestions and remarks he's sent me.

I'll have to flesh out the rest of the sequel too before actually posting the rewrite. There are so many ideas, but there needs to be some structure in them, and a fitting conclusion, so that'll take some work.

Why the hell does everyone think Luna was sleeping? She didn't help Celestia fight Chrysalis because she was busy fighting the other changelings. When she arrived at the wedding reception and said, "Did I miss anything?" she wasn't referring to changleing attacking, she was referring to the wedding.

No it doesn't. How could she stay awake during an attack like that? I am pretty someone would let her know. I am also sure that Luna is, combat wise, more powerful than Celestia, because Celestia had to use the Elements of Harmony to banish her in the first place.

>>632880632880 Kindly stop spamming up the comments with your own silly headcanon. She sleeps through the ruckus of a busy city every day. It's not as if the attack included artillery fire to wake her up. Just some screaming. Also, the Mane 6's use of the Elements stripped her of that combat power. Luna isn't NMM anymore, and most likely nowhere near as powerful as she was.

Reading this had been on my "To Do" list for a week or so now. I have now done so.

Now I've got an image in my head of a black "pony" with bandages wrapped around his hooves, a vest to cover his exo-skeletol "ribs", a set of goggles to cover his blue eyes, and a hooded cloak to cover his wings and funky ears. I highly doubt that this is the route that Flitter will take, but I'm sure some other OC Changing could pull that look off.

In a good way, of course. These "Old Ways" seem to be a way of changelings...dare I say it...emotionally protecting Equestrians. Even if it is through lies and deceit. But Flitter does have a valid point: He WILLINGLY pledged his life to Morning Rain, and he WILLINGLY loves her. A touching tale of how a simple promise became something infinitely more.

Please, if you do have any ideas to continue this, write them. I'm interested to see how the story of Flitter and Morning Rain can progress.

I do, they just need a lot of sorting out, and I'm quite short on time these days... not sure when I'll have time to get deeper into this.

As for the emotional protection, well, true, but ultimately it only serves to protect themselves, since it keeps the ponies from realizing their existence. As I said before, they're modelled after classic trickster fae :)